Vatican tells Hamburg parents its teaching on sexuality is unchanged
A Vatican official told Catholic parents in Hamburg that the Dicastery for Culture and Education stands by its 2019 document Male and Female He Created Them. The archdiocese plans to introduce a sexual diversity curriculum in its 15 Catholic schools
The Vatican has confirmed its teaching on sexuality in response to a request from Catholic parents in Hamburg, Germany. Msgr. Matthias Ambros, undersecretary of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, told the parents that the dicastery's position "remains as expressed" in the 2019 document Male and Female He Created Them. That document defends the right of parents to base their children's education on an understanding of human sexuality grounded in reason and in God's design for the sexes.
The Archdiocese of Hamburg plans to introduce its 33-page framework, titled Male, Female, Diverse, in its 15 Catholic schools starting August 20. The document promotes "acceptance of diversity" in sexual orientation and gender identity, says biological sex does not necessarily correspond to social identity, and includes material on legal protections for gender identities and on gender transition procedures.
Catholic parents organize
A group of concerned parents formed the Parents' Network for Child Protection and Prevention and sent a petition to Pope Leo XIV in February through the apostolic nuncio. They later filed a canonical complaint against Archbishop Stefan Heße. Varinia Arauco Vera, a Peruvian mother who leads the network in Hamburg, wrote to Heße on August 14 saying she expected the archdiocese to withdraw the curriculum by August 17, given the Vatican's reaffirmation of Male and Female He Created Them.
The network drew up a detailed comparison between Male, Female, Diverse and the Vatican document, identifying 20 contradictions between the archdiocesan text and Church teaching on sexuality. When the August 17 deadline passed without a reply, the parents wrote again on August 18, sharing Rome's response and calling it "deeply painful" to have to "defend the purity of our children and the faith in which we want to raise them."
In that letter they urged Heße to acknowledge the contradictions they had listed: "Rome has reaffirmed the Church's position on sexual morality. If you too recognize the contradiction we have pointed out, we urge you: Do not remain silent!"
Other disputes in Germany
In June, the Vatican's liturgy office turned down a request from the German bishops' conference to let lay people preach homilies at Mass "in exceptional circumstances," saying preaching is "intrinsically linked" to the ordained ministry.
Lay groups tied to the German Synodal Way, among them the Central Committee of German Catholics and the Catholic Women's Association of Germany, said they would keep pressing their bishops to take the fight back to Rome. The women's association said the Vatican decision showed that the Church clings to structures that "exclude women from key tasks and services."
Heße has led the Archdiocese of Hamburg since 2015. He offered his resignation in 2021 after criticism of his handling of abuse cases while serving as an official of the Archdiocese of Cologne. Pope Francis did not accept it.
